Taken from the website":
http://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/04/16/is-my-dad-in-heaven-little-boy-asks-pope/
'God surely was proud of your father,' the Pope said
After circling a massive, crumbling public housing complex on the outskirts of Rome, Pope Francis had an emotional encounter with the neighbourhood’s children.
Question-and-answer sessions with youngsters are a standard part of Pope Francis’ parish visits. And, at St Paul of the Cross parish on April 15, there were the usual questions like, “How did you feel when you were elected Pope?”
But then it was Emanuele’s turn. The young boy smiled at the pope as he approached the microphone. But then froze. “I can’t do it,” Emanuele said.
Mgr Leonardo Sapienza, a papal aide, encouraged the boy, but he kept saying, “I can’t.”
“Come, come to me, Emanuele,” the Pope said. “Come and whisper it in my ear.”
Msgr. Sapienza helped the boy up to the platform where the pope was seated. Emanuele was sobbing by that point, and Pope Francis enveloped him in a big embrace, patting his head and speaking softly to him.
With their heads touching, the Pope and the boy spoke privately to each other before Emanuele returned to his seat.
“If only we could all cry like Emanuele when we have an ache in our hearts like he has,” the Pope told the children. “He was crying for his father and had the courage to do it in front of us because in his heart there is love for his father.”
Pope Francis said he had asked Emanuele if he could share the boy’s question and the boy agreed. “‘A little while ago my father passed away. He was a nonbeliever, but he had all four of his children baptised. He was a good man. Is dad in heaven?'”
“How beautiful to hear a son say of his father, ‘He was good,'” the Pope told the children. “And what a beautiful witness of a son who inherited the strength of his father, who had the courage to cry in front of all of us. If that man was able to make his children like that, then it’s true, he was a good man. He was a good man.
“That man did not have the gift of faith, he wasn’t a believer, but he had his children baptised. He had a good heart,” Pope Francis said.
“God is the one who says who goes to heaven,” the Pope explained.
The next step in answering Emanuele’s question, he said, would be to think about what God is like and, especially, what kind of heart God has. “What do you think? A father’s heart. God has a dad’s heart. And with a dad who was not a believer, but who baptised his children and gave them that bravura, do you think God would be able to leave him far from himself?”
“Does God abandon his children?” the Pope asked. “Does God abandon his children when they are good?”
The children shouted, “No.”
“There, Emanuele, that is the answer,” the Pope told the boy. “God surely was proud of your father, because it is easier as a believer to baptise your children than to baptize them when you are not a believer. Surely this pleased God very much.”
Pope Francis encouraged Emanuele to “talk to your dad; pray to your dad.”
Earlier, a young girl named Carlotta also asked the pope a delicate question: “When we are baptised, we become children of God. People who aren’t baptized, are they not children of God?”
“What does your heart tell you?” the Pope asked Carlotta. She said, they are, too.
“Right, and I’ll explain,” the Pope told her. “We are all children of God. Everyone. Everyone.”
The nonbaptised, members of other religions, those who worship idols, “even the mafiosi,” who terrorise the neighbourhood around the parish, are children of God, though “they prefer to behave like children of the devil,” he said.
“God created everyone, loves everyone and put in everyone’s heart a conscience so they would recognise what is good and distinguish it from what is bad,” the Pope said.
The difference, he said, is that “when you were baptised, the Holy Spirit entered into that conscience and reinforced your belonging to God and, in that sense, you became more of a daughter of God because you’re a child of God like everyone, but with the strength of the Holy Spirit.”
Where does one start when there is so much wrong.
Let's first agree on one thing. The Word of God is the final authority on faith and practice NOT THE POPE!
Where shall I begin? First and I believe foremost I am offended. The Pope does not once quote the Bible which I believe is THE sourcebook. Not once does he clearly present the gospel that the Bible clearly presents nor does the pope press others to go to the Word of The Holy God to find facts. In my opinion, the Pope has not read nor does he grasp the Bible. So Sad. Many may read this and say I am just anti-Catholic or ant-Pope,. No I am very pro Word of God. If the Bible states it, believe it. If not, do not make it up, no one and again I say no one can override what the Bible clearly states. There are so many mistakes the Pope made on April 15, 2018, that I was not sure which to enlighten my readers about. So I will address three and only three.
1. Going to heaven is not about being GOOD. Never does the bible ever claim that. As a matter of fact it claims the opposite. Read, Mark 10:18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. If only God is good as Jesus clearly says and no man is good, no one goes to heaven according to the Pope. Yet read, John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. And also, John 3:36 36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.". So dear readers getting into heaven is not about being good it is about what Christ has done for us and faith in Him.
2. The second thing that needs to be addressed is that the Pope, as a wolf in sheep's clothing, asked the children to agree with his abhorrent teachings. Why? How many of these precious children did he lead astray? Jesus beckons little children to come to Him, not to the pope. Dear sweet Carlotta needed to know Christ forgives sin, took her sin upon the cross and died in her place so she could have life. Not, dear pope, what does her heart tell her. But what did God SAY! Reading from, John 1:11-13 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Becoming a child of God, Carlotta, is not about everyone, it is only believers in Christ that become Children of God, to which John the apostle clearly states. Dearest pope please read your Bible. Open to these pages, read the Gospel of John and the Book of Romans. PLEASE. Stop misleading masses of people and especially impressible young folks that look to you for spiritual guidance. Call upon God while it is still TODAY.
3. Baptism, if you mean with water in any mode, saves no one. I know there are two verses that imply baptism saves but this is where the Pope and I really depart ways. In Acts 2:38 38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in Mark 16:16 16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. First of all, these two passages must be understood by two clear principles. First, the word baptized is not translated but transliterated. Secondly, context always, always must be first understood. Baptized is best understood as 'identified by or with'. In Mark 16, there is a textual discussion on whether or not this was part of the original manuscripts. So we cannot build a doctrine on one verse at any time. The Acts passage in context is addressed to 'Men of Israel' in a transitional period of time. In Acts 1:5 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.", there are only two types of identifications one with water that John the Baptizer did and one baptism by means the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:13 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit, more light is added to this one identification by means of the Holy Spirit.
I do not know in this limited venue if you can see dear reader that the pope has not referred to his Bible and by the way, again, he never quoted one verse during his time with these children. Pope Francis, I invite you to have coffee and bagels with me and we will open the Word of God together and hear from Him about the faith and practice.